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Early Risers.


Mr.S.corn78
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Morning all.

 

Nothing to add to Robert's weather report. I woke up almost exactly one minute before the alarm would have gone off.

 

Looking at my schedule for today, I have a feeling that the room for the afternoon seminar will be much too small for the number of attendants I would expect to be there. Consequently, I shall be there very early.

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Sadly not. Both my weight and alcohol consuption inceased somewhat over the last 10 days. So it's back to normal living to try and shed those pounds. It was great to get a break and it's cleared my head on a lot of issues that have been buggin' me for a while. Suddenly all is crystal clear and whilst Mrs S was reading, I had my nose in my laptop. I think I gave the impression of being a workaholic, although had other guests really looked on the screen they would have seen Templot burning brightly....

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Funny that Gordon - my weight has also increased. I am also making a significant effort to cut alcohol out almost completely. I have come to realise that it has become a habit to get home from work and crack open a couple of beers. It has sort of crept up on me! The thing is, I love beer, but I don't actually miss it when I don't drink it. I think the result will be good for my weight and my liver!

 

I am also hoping to make a concerted effort to get a layout off the ground. I need something to occupy the little guy when he is with me. The existing layout (in the link below) has turned out to be beyond my capabilities (it is too big - both in effort and physical space) so I am thinking about a Minories style layout.

 

Thomas' behaviour has not improved at school (I have another appointment with his teacher tomorrow morning - hence why I didn't sleep last night) and all he seems to be interested in at the moment is playing Nintendo. His Nintendo gets rationed - and I get a major wobbly when he is told to put it away. It will therefore be confiscated indefinitely - until his behaviour at school improves and he proves to me that he is responsible enough to have it back. To tell the truth, I rue the day that he got the wretched thing.

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On In Law rescue duty for the next five weeks - from two hours away.

BiL has gone to Sweden for five weeks. As it is knee deep in snow, as always, I question his comprehension.

Only a minor earth tremor to deal with so far - MiL (who you may remember is pixilated) decided to replace all the carpets in the house.

As this had been done about five months ago, some persuasion was needed to change her mind.

As it stands, ordering the carpets has been put off until BiL gets back B) .

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Morning all.

Rather dull here. It rained during the night but it seems a lot less breezy than yesterday. I plan to continue clearing the landing today, we now have a date for carpet fitting (3rd Nov) so I can't delay too much. I wonder if Matthew will have to stop us buying carpets in a few years.

Tony

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Morning all (just)

 

I have my usual 'new academic year' cold. Unfortunately it waited until half term to pounce. A restless night resulted in a lie in until just after eight. A quick look at the weather (wind and heavy rain) convinced me that today is going to be a lazy day (resting the cold, if anyone asks).

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...and all he seems to be interested in at the moment is playing Nintendo. His Nintendo gets rationed - and I get a major wobbly when he is told to put it away. It will therefore be confiscated indefinitely - until his behaviour at school improves and he proves to me that he is responsible enough to have it back. To tell the truth, I rue the day that he got the wretched thing.

I can't remember precisely when Matthew had his first Gameboy but it was one of the big grey variety. When the Pokemon games came out he did seem to be somewhat attached to it. I don't regret buying the various games devices for Matthew as when he was little there didn't seem to be anything else he could excel at. Matthew was impossible to punish by confiscating things, he'd just play out the games mentally. He said later that the worst kind of punishment was being told that we were "disappointed" by whatever behaviour had initiated our displeasure. Matthew's cousins were even more attached to their Nintendo products. The older one has just started work as a hospital doctor, the other is studying mathematics at Cambridge.

Tony

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Thanks Tony!

 

To be honest, I am not averse to computer games. I spent much of my childhood playing around with a computer (not just games) and that's probably the reason for my career in Software and Systems Engineering. The problem at the moment is that he doesn't seem to be putting two and two together. He listens to the tellings off (and I too have told him I am disappointed with his behaviour) and then does exactly the same thing. Sometimes a reoccurence takes a couple of weeks, other times it happens within a couple of days. He hasn't understood that his life will be much easier at school and home if he tows the line and does what he is asked to do.

 

The Nintendo is going to go until at least Christmas as it seems to be the only way of getting through to him - although I am sure I will get a load of grief for it.

 

The trouble is, he can behave beautifully when he wants to and he can also do the school work without problems when he puts his mind to it.

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Robert, Matthew as a pre-school child seemed to be good at home but didn't apparently fit the behaviour patterns at nursery. We were told that he would never be able to go to "normal" primary school. However he loved infant school and worked hard (though as one teacher said not necessarily at what she wanted). Junior school was hard for Matthew. Apart from one year where he had a male teacher, all we had were complaints. Frankly although I have always believed in state education and sending children to neighbourhood schools I wish with 20 20 hindsight I'd taken him away from that school for years 5 and 6. His bad behaviour mainly consisted of asking questions, and not being shy about telling teachers they were wrong. Unfortunately due to his co-ordination difficulty he couldn't back up his verbal fluency with written work. He really liked the first few years of secondary school but drifted into being good enough to get 5 grade Cs at secondary school. Sixth form college was where Matthew really did well. Staff there worked with us to sort out why his grades were poor (give up handwriting, use a computer). What was also nice was that he had a group of friends and also tutors who seemed to enjoy teaching him. He entered that college with predicted grades of 2 Es and left with 3 As and a D. The D was in philosophy and wasn't bad for someone who apparently "couldn't write essays" a couple of years previously. He also got a C in AS Economics during the final year at college.

 

At junior school the emphasis on being "not different", "doing what everyone else does" , and never disagreeing with teacher caused trouble. Fortunately he survived and these traits seem to be desirable in university education.

Tony

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Unfortunately since the introduction of the one size fits all national curriculum anyone who is different is a 'problem'. This coupled with the never ending upward drive for results and aspirational targets mean non academic children know they have failed by their seventh birthday. The obsession with measuring children like tins of beans for 'added value'takes no regard of children who develop at different rates, have traumatic events in their lives or unfortunately don't have enough ability to meet the bench mark. It keeps me in work but I would much rather see schools full of happy kids doing things they could succeed at. Some children will never be able to cope with day to day maths and will never read anything more taxing than the Sun but it doesn't make them less human.

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On a different subject ...

There was a TV prog on Bletchley Park this evening.

MiL worked there in the War.

To this day if you mention Bletchley Park she will jump up and look through the window to see if anyone is listening.

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Hello all,

Traveling Trev has been missing for a few days. Are you O.K. Trev?

Bad news. Up to 1 mm rain forecast for each of the next three days!!!!!!

(Otherwise generally partly cloudy but with some Sun) Max 17C

Where is evetybody else?

 

Thanks for he news about Thomas, Robert. I am sorry he is causing you concern.

Good luck with the correctional treatment

 

Enjoy the rest of your break Mick and BoD. unfortunately today is a reverse hump day for you guys.

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Morning all. Or just Don so far!

 

Went to bed feeling rubbish with a cold at 7.30 last night. Slept 8.30-12.30 then was awake for 3 hours but managed to finish my book and get another 4 hours of sleep afterwards. Not feeling my brightest this morning. See how I cope at work but I think I'll have to pull out of today's tennis lesson.

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Hello all.

It is getting brighter and clearer as the cloud blows away. Although it doesn't seem that cold. We didn't need the alarm clock this morning as MiL rang from India to wish us Happy Diwali before Aditi set off to work.

It took me all day yesterday to move the books and bookshelves from the landing. I read somewhere that the average house contains 50 books. Lots of people must have been storing theirs on our landing.

 

Tony

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Morning all

 

I see we are having another game of pass the cold.

Not only reverse hump day Don, but I'm at work today doing some revision with those who have exams soon. Not an onerous task and one that I don't really mind but I think I would rather be at home.

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Assuming all goes well with Aditi's dissertation submission my next major task will be sorting out the study. Once upon a time it was my train room but I don't think I'll ever get it back for that use, though my railway magazine collection could end up in there.

Tony

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Morning all

 

I see we are having another game of pass the cold.

Not only reverse hump day Don, but I'm at work today doing some revision with those who have exams soon. Not an onerous task and one that I don't really mind but I think I would rather be at home.

Perhaps hold the revision session at home!?

Tony

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"Perhaps hold the revision session at home!?" No, No, No!

That would ruin the atmosphere of home being a refuge!

When I first started teaching I was rather glad to live in another town rather than near the school. Apparently Saturday night entertainment for the youth of the area involved the odd prank or two. They were convinced (but mistaken) that I lived in Chelmsford as their research found someone with same name in the phone book. Apparently "I" wasn't very pleased at being woken at 2 in the morning by phone calls.

Tony

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